My least favorite childhood activity was reciting multiplication tables. My teacher would make us rehearse them over and over again. I’m sure it wasn’t her favorite exercise either, but she knew that repetition would drill them into our brains.

Once wasn’t enough. The same lesson applies to marketing. Can you recall a time when you were compelled to buy a product or use a company’s service based on a single ad or email blast? I didn’t think so. And yet organizations still believe they can convert prospects into clients and sales with one lonely postcard.

Big mistake.

Building buzz and staying top of mind requires an integrated marketing strategy that includes providing consistent and engaging content through multiple touch points. It’s the only way to sway an audience. Repeat anything often enough and it sticks. Repeat anything often enough and it sticks. Again: Repeat anything often enough and it sticks.

That’s what an outstanding marketing campaign does. Reaching out to prospects and customers regularly and through different channels, such as social media, blogs, email blasts, newsletters and ads, commands attention and embeds an organization in distracted minds.

How often is often enough? I wish I had the magic formula, but there isn’t one. Frequency varies from company to company, and depends on factors that include timing, business goals and where prospects are in the buying cycle. No matter how often a company publishes or where, it should always focus on quality. Poorly written and designed content isn’t memorable – and it’s certainly not persuasive.

I don’t have to recite multiplication tables anymore, but I still remember them.

Last week I attended a building safety seminar about what we’re all supposed to do in an emergency. The presenter drilled home that the best way to cope when things fall apart is to be prepared – have a plan and play the role assigned to you. Here at The Simons Group, everything ties back into marketing, so it didn’t take long for me to come up with an idea for my next blog post.

A company’s marketing agenda is a lot like an office building – without a solid plan, a minor setback can turn into full-blown chaos quickly. I’ve talked to more companies than I care to admit that say, “We can’t talk about marketing strategies until so-and-so gathers and formats our email list/comes back from a trade show/finishes his TPS reports,” “Hmm… that ultimately goes through Amanda, and she’s on maternity leave until February,” or, “Bob used to do that, but he’s gone and we can’t talk about branding or social media until a replacement is onboard.”

Organizations can solve each of the above situations by assigning roles to everyone in their marketing process for individual projects and establishing backups in case someone can’t fulfill his or her role. That way, if team member A hasn’t performed his part of the project, it doesn’t have to hold up the process, since team member B knows what she can do to keep the process moving. If a person quits, is laid off or is out of the office for an extended period of time, the remaining team members can pick up that person’s duties.

As the safety presentation drove that point home to us, let me take that same point and (in a calmer fashion than our drill-sergeant instructor) redirect it to our readership. A team member’s extended absence or a big project that comes out of nowhere and needs to be done yesterday is the marketing department equivalent of a building emergency.  Just as our building implements a safety plan and assigns roles, having a clear description of how your plans will unfold if a situation arises can ensure that your overall marketing plan continues to run smoothly and remains “safe.”